Mary "Jacky" Faber
Mary "Jacky" Faber is the protagonist of the "Bloody Jack" series. She is an adventurous girl living in the 1800s, trying to find a balance between a happy life of freedom and a lawful one. Physical Appearance Jacky begins the series at twelve years old, and ends at nineteen. She has dirty blonde hair, is under five feet tall, and weighs approximately ninety pounds (she is often referred to by herself and others as "scrawny"). By the middle of the series, her left eyebrow is scarred, causing its hair to grow in white, and her right eyebrow is surrounded by blue powder burns. By the time of The Wake of the 'Lorelei Lee', Jacky has two tattoos: a blue anchor on her hip, and a golden dragon on the back of her neck. Despite the fact that Jacky does not consider herself attractive, nearly everyone she encounters is attracted to her. Story Before the Series Mary Faber started off life as the eldest daughter in a low-class family in a small town in the north of England. For the first eight years of her life, she lived with her parents and her younger sister, Penelope (Penny). However, on a day that she later called "That Dark Day", her parents and her younger sister died of pestilence, and Mary was tossed out on the streets. For the next five years, she made her living begging on the streets with a gang of street urchins led by a boy named Rooster Charlie. Bloody Jack Early in the first book, ''Bloody Jack'', Mary's group can't find the leader, Rooster Charlie. Mary goes to look for him and finds him dead on the street. (Later on in the series, we discover Charlie is killed by Muck the Corpseseller.) Mary leaves the gang, hoping not to end up dead on the streets like poor Charlie. She takes Charlie's pants, shirt, vest, and shiv, and disguises herself as a boy named Jack and signs up on a warship called the HMS Dolphin, as a ship's boy. She is joined by five other boys: Tink, Benjy, Davy, Willy, and Jaimy and quickly makes friends with the other boys after a quick scuffle with Willy to assert herself as someone not to be picked on. She stays on the ship for about a year (during this time, she experiences her first period and develops breasts). Eventually, however, she is captured by a pirate, LeFievre (whom the Dolphin has been chasing for most of the book), and is outed as a female after returning to the ship. She is then sent off to a girls' boarding school in Boston, Massachusetts, called the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. Curse of the Blue Tattoo Jacky arrives at the girls' boarding school in Boston, called the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls. She quickly makes friends with a girl named Amy Trevelyne and becomes enemies with Clarissa Worthington Howe (of the Virginia Howes). However, Jacky is frequently made fun of by Clarissa and some of the other girls, especially Lisette de Lise, for her unladylike behavior and her British accent. Jacky starts earning money by leaving the school during the nights and singing at a bar called 'The Pig and Whistle' with an alcoholic musician named Gulliver "Gully" McFarland. During the day, she skips school to go to the harbor and gets arrested for causing distractions in a public area (dancing in public while playing a pennywhistle and displaying a female limb). After her attorney, Ezra Pickering, gets her out of jail, Mistress Pimm demotes her to serving girl. Jacky spends most of the book as a servant. Throughout the book, she is kept busy because the school preacher, Reverend Mather, believes her to be Janey Porter, a serving girl he raped and killed, coming back to haunt him. He believes Jacky needs to be killed (as she is a witch) and that she is filled with evil. Jacky pretends to be the ghost of Janey Porter during the night in order to get the Reverend to confess that he killed Janey since everyone had previously believed she committed suicide. Eventually, Mistress Pimm discovers that Jacky has been keeping up with her lessons, despite being demoted to serving girl, and reinstates her as a lady. Soon afterward, Jacky and Amy go to the Trevelynes' farm, and Jacky fills in for a jockey on a horse she met earlier in the book, the Sheik of Araby. At a party soon after Jacky's win, Clarissa gets Jacky drunk, and Jacky is almost raped by Lieutenant Flashby, but Randall saves her honour. This embarrassment is the cause of Jacky trying to run away from Dove Coat and Amy Trevelyne, but she is kidnapped by Beatle & Strunk, a pair of private investigators, who betray her to Preacher Mathers. Soon after, as she escapes from the preacher, who burns alive in the church, the city of Boston catches fire, the Lawson Peabody is burnt to the ground, and Jacky runs away into the night, headed off for England. Under the Jolly Roger Jacky is recruited as a midwife onboard the whaling ship Pequod (a facsimile of Captain Ahab's ship from [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick Herman Melville's Moby-Dick)] and sees much of the world. Upon returning, she has plenty of money, and enjoys some time in London, reuniting with Judy Miller and giving her a job. However, while dressed as a boy in hopes of surprising Jaimy at the race track, Jacky is captured by a press gang and forced into service upon the Wolverine, a Hell Ship under the command of the repulsive Abraham Scroggs. Muck, who has also been pressed, happens to be onboard under a pseudonym. While imprisoned in Scroggs' quarters, Jacky meets John Higgins, who instantly sympathizes with her. Scroggs has a heart attack while trying to rape Jacky (a combination of exertion, his illness, and stress from his mutinous crew crashing cannonballs overhead), and Jacky remains in the Captain's room with his corpse, simultaneously gaining the crew's trust during the day and getting them accustomed to following her orders. Eventually, she reveals herself as the ranking commanding officer on the ship, and takes command. Her first order of business is to expose Muck, who is killed by the other sailors. Jacky turns the Wolverine into a true man-of-war, taking four prizes, including the Emerald, which will soon become her own. Once the Admiralty realizes what has happened, command is taken over by Captain Trumbull, who is sent along with Jaimy to resolve the situation. Jacky is brought to the Admiralty, who do not take her seriously, and give her a Letter of Marque in return for information on a French spy ring that Scroggs appears to have been part of, thinking that a girl will never be able to obtain a ship and a crew. Unbeknownst to them, however, Jacky has kept the Emerald secret, and boards it along with Higgins, now her trusted steward. She recruits Liam Delaney and others as crew, and forms a strong friendship with Liam's daughter, Mairead. Jacky sets out to capture prizes and serve her country, in the process antagonizing pirates Jean and Pierre Lafitte, who swear revenge. She earns great infamy during this time, being referred to as "La Belle Jeune Fille sans Merci" (the beautiful girl without mercy) by the French. Jacky is truly content for the first time in her life, and achieves her goal of opening an orphanage in London. Jacky soon realizes, however, that a price has been put on her head by the Admiralty, who have revoked her Letter of Marque after discovering that she stole the Emerald. Wanted for piracy, Jacky is soon captured by her former crew on the Wolverine, and the Emerald is sunk at the hands of Jaimy himself. Trumbull is bringing Jacky back to London when he is called to participate in the Battle of Trafalgar alongside Lord Nelson. During the bloody battle, Jacky escapes from the brig and also fights, killing many French and Spanish sailors, and receiving a powder burn alongside the eye opposite her white scar. Trumbull, recognizing her valor, allows her to escape, and she heads back to Boston to lie low. In the Belly of the Bloodhound Jacky re-enrolls at Lawson Peabody and continues her education whilst hiding from the British authorities. Higgins, now her steward and close personal friend, works with Ezra Pickering to clear Jacky's name, but to no avail. Jacky reignites her rivalry with Clarissa, who has brought her personal slave, Angelique, to school with her, much to Jacky's disgust. On the day of an important field trip, Mistress Pimm suddenly falls ill, and the girls are escorted by her handyman, Dobbs, and a slave named Jerome. However, this is all a setup by Jerome, whose real name is Sin-Kay, and his partner Bartholomew Simon, a slave trader who plans on selling the girls at auction in Africa. They are taken aboard the slave ship Bloodhound, commanded by the stern Captain Blodgett, and on which Hugh the Grand works as muscle. Jacky sneaks her seabag below and immediately learns all she can about the ship's layout and the crew, and tries her best to get the girls, especially Clarissa, to cooperate and listen to her. Jacky quickly exploits the superstitions of the crew, sneaking out of the hold disguised as the "black ghost," a fictional figure they fear. After frightening some sailors, she is followed into the hold by Blodgett, and must cover for herself by kissing Clarissa and pretending that they are "particular friends." Jacky notes that she has "been kissed by worse." During her time on the Bloodhound, Jacky's relationship with Clarissa cools off, especially once Clarissa stands up for Jacky and reveals that she brought Angelique to school in order to prevent her from being "bred." Jacky also becomes closer to Katy Deere, whose past is revealed. Eventually, the girls escape using a plan orchestrated by Jacky and Clarissa, during which a large portion of the Bloodhound's crew, in addition to Hugh the Grand, is killed. The girls, afloat at sea, are rescued by a British ship and returned to Boston, However upon arrival Jacky is arrested for piracy by the ships crew. Mississippi Jack Jacky escapes with the help of Higgins, Clarissa, and Katy, then heads to the American West in order to lie low. She encounters the blowhard Mike Fink and immediately contrives a plan to con him out of his keelboat, which she takes and turns into a showboat that she names the ''Belle of the Golden West''. Setting a course for New Orleans, she is joined by passengers and crew that include Chloe Cantrell, Clementine Jukes, Yancy Cantrell, Lightfoot, and others. The Belle, combined with Jacky's energetic and flamboyant musical performances, draws in plenty of crowds and money. While ashore at a Shawnee village (where Lightfoot was raised), Jacky befriends Tepeki, a young Shawnee girl, and plays the pennywhistle with a local chief. However, she soon realizes that Harry Flashby and British Intelligence are present, attempting to stir up a conflict among the Natives and white settlers by offering to pay the Natives for the scalps of white folk. Flashby recognizes Jacky and kidnaps her. The crew of the Belle help Jacky escape, and she makes Flashby and his cohort Moseley walk the plank, since they buy into the pirate stereotypes associated with Jacky by the wanted posters. Jacky also has a brief affair with Richard Allen, the British soldier assigned to guard her during captivity, and Jaimy catches her kissing him naked in the Mississippi. Sick with grief over the misunderstanding, Jacky has Allen write a letter to Jaimy, explaining the situation. After seeing Allen off and sending Lightfoot and Chee-a-quat to search for Jaimy, Jacky is again kidnapped, this time by the racist Beam Family, who take issue with the fact that Jacky allows "colored" members of her crew (Chloe and escaped slave Solomon Freeman) to be free human beings. The Beams tar and feather Jacky, but are all viciously killed by Katy Deere, Lightfoot, and Chee-a-quat. Jacky has her head shaved in order to remove the tar. Jacky is separated from the Belle on the way to New Orleans, and washes up alone. She stays with Mam'selle Claudelle de Bourbon, whose feelings for Jacky are further revealed, at the House of the Rising Sun. While playing guitar there (learned from Solomon), Jacky is recognized by a French aristocrat she wronged during her privateering days, and she is confronted at swordpoint by the aristocrat and the pirates Jean and Pierre Lafitte. Flashby and Mike Fink show up separately to take revenge on her as well, but the crew of the Belle intervenes, and Jacky escapes with Fink's help. She gives Fink two hundred dollars to forget about her theft of his boat. Turns out, it wasn't his boat in the first place. Jacky meets Jaimy at his new posting on the HMS Mercury, and the two rekindle their relationship. However, Jaimy's current voyage lasts a year, and Jacky decides to pursue the furthering of Faber Shipping Worldwide, Incorporated until Jaimy returns. My Bonny Light Horseman Sailing on the Nancy B. along with Higgins and the rest of her crew, Jacky is waylaid by the Lafitte pirates once again, who push her into a trap set by the Admiralty. The captain of the British ship, Hannibal Hudson, befriends Jacky while admitting that he cannot afford to lose the reward he would receive by delivering her to her execution. During her time on the ship, Jacky becomes close with Stephen Sebastian, a scientist and the ship's doctor, who tasks her with sketching pictures of the new species of insects he has discovered during the voyage. While onboard, Jacky also encounters her nemesis Alexander Bliffil, who tries his best to turn the crew against her, but to no avail. One night, after a grand dinner at the captain's table, the entire crew falls ill due to bad fish. Jacky, having abstained from eating the fish due to the amount she endured while cruising down the Mississippi, remains healthy, and becomes the ranking officer onboard. Soon after she takes command, the ship is attacked by the French, and Jacky once again finds herself in captivity, this time in a French prison. The prison, overseen by a man known only as Jardineaux, takes its toll on Jacky, and the guards soon discover that she is La Belle Jeune Fille sans Merci, and take her off to be executed. However, Jardineaux switches her with another girl, who is executed in her place, before revealing that he works for the British, and that Jacky is to be used as a spy against Napoléon Bonaparte. After a short time posing as a dancer and prostitute in Paris, Jacky, fed up with this role, disguises herself as a French soldier and convinces Jardineaux to send her into battle to glean information from Napoléon's forces firsthand. Her handler, Jean-Paul de Valdon, who has fallen in love with her, is a member of the Light Cavalry, and is on his way to the same battle: a decisive strike against the Prussians. Jacky is given command of her own unit, the Clodhoppers, befriends Pierre Bardot, and antagonizes the pompous Major Levesque, whom she eventually outwits at cards and leaves penniless. Being a messenger, Jacky is eventually entrusted with delivering letters straight to Napoléon, whom she finds not to be the monster described in British propaganda, but as a normal person looking out for his people, despite the hundreds of thousands of deaths he has caused. When the Battle of Jena comes, Jacky is knocked unconscious by falling off her horse, but is lauded for appearing to lead the charge, and is awarded with a Legion of Honour. Back in Paris, she reports to Jardineaux, who is appalled that Jacky was so close to Napoléon and chose not to kill him. Convinced that Jacky has been turned, Jardineaux drags her down to the sea, where the Nancy B. is just rolling in to take her back, and plans on executing her in front of her crew. However, Jean-Paul, tasked with holding onto Jacky's shiv, stabs Jardineaux to death with it. He decides to return to his family and quit his life as a spy. Jacky and Jaimy reunite onboard her schooner, and Jacky reflects that she is once again home. Rapture of the Deep Jacky plans to wed Jaimy, but the preparations are cut short by British Intelligence, who have grown impatient with her due to Jardineaux's death, and have another mission for her: to refill the coffers of Britain by lifting lost Spanish gold from the San Magdalena, a long-sunken ship somewhere in the Florida Keys. While en route to the Caribbean the Nancy B. stops in Charleston, South Carolina. There Jacky, Davy, and Tink come upon a slave market. the three are initially disgusted but stay to witness the evil. the final slave of the sale is an elderly slave, Jemimah, who Jacky takes pity on and buys to later free. Rejoined by Higgins, Davy, Tink, Dr. Sebastian, Tilly, and others, Jacky takes on the mission with the HMS Dolphin, now captained by Hannibal Hudson, as protection. After finding the sunken ship, Jacky begins raising the gold using the newly invented diving bell. Spiteful at once again being the puppet of King George and unable to resist, Jacky begins hoarding some of the gold in an underwater cave for herself. While on shore leave at Havana antagonizes Juan Carlos Cisneros y Siquieros, a Spanish lieutenant who immediately suspects Jacky of something dubious, and punishes his subordinates when they accidentally give Jacky information on the San Cristobal's schedule. She also reunites with Flaco Jiminez, a pirate with whom she had an affair during her time as a privateer/pirate on the Caribbean. She immediately distrusts Flaco's First Mate, El Feo, who turns out to be planning mutiny and to take the gold for himself with the help of Flashby, who has been assigned as Second Mate on the Dolphin. Jacky and Flaco defeat and kill El Feo after the latter kidnaps and attempts to ransom Joan Nichols, whom Jacky has taken to mothering. Once the bulk of the gold is recovered, Cisneros attacks, and is defeated by Jacky, Flaco, and the Dolphin. Jacky gives the San Cristobal to Britain as a gift, hoping it will even things out for her theft of the Emerald, and then returns to Boston with her stash of the gold in order to buy a new Flagship for Faber Shipping. The Wake of the Lorelei Lee Jacky purchases a new ship, the Lorelei Lee, but falls into a trap set by Flashby and Bliffil, which leads to her trial and conviction in London. She is sentenced to the developing penal colony in New South Wales, Australia, and is forced to ride on her own ship as a prisoner. The trip takes almost a year, during which she crosses the Equator and is initiated as a Shellback. She becomes acquainted with Augustus Laughton and Enoch Lightner, the Captain and Sailing Master of the ship, and the two hundred female convicts participate in Laughton's nightly spectacles of debauchery. Jacky once again encounters Gully MacFarland, who is now clean and sober thanks to her, and Mairead Delaney, who is now pregnant and also a convict. For the duration of the voyage, Jacky is obsessively stalked by Ruger, the First Mate, who alternates between trying to "take" her and trying to get her killed. At a stop in Bombay, Jacky takes Ravi, a street urchin who reminds her of herself, under her wing. When Laughton unexpectedly dies, Ruger becomes Captain, and the crew is split. Higgins, onboard as Assistant Purser, agrees to a sham marriage with Jacky in order to protect her. Eventually the ship is attacked by Chinese pirates led by Cheng Shih after entering the South China Sea. Cheng Shih takes Jacky as a concubine, and Jacky falls in love with her, despite her abiding intentions to marry Jaimy. Cheng Shih aids Jacky in taking back the Lorelei Lee, killing Ruger in the process, in exchange for Jacky's aid in retrieving a golden Buddha statue from the sea floor. Cheng Shih allows Jacky to leave with Jaimy, leaving one of her servants, Lee Chi, with Jacky. Jacky plans for the future as her ship, along with those of Jaimy and Joseph Jared, sail into a typhoon. The Mark of the Golden Dragon Jacky is dragged overboard during the typhoon, and the crew searches for her for several weeks before declaring her dead. They hold a funeral and move on, with Jaimy swearing vengeance on Flashby and Bliffil, the ones he deems responsible for getting Jacky into this mess in the first place. Jacky, however, washes up in Burma alongside Ravi. In order to obtain a boat, they aid a local boy, Arun, in ridding his small fishing village of a bully called Ohnmar, who terrorizes the people and takes large percentages of their profits. While performing a street show, Jacky is apprehended by a local businessman known as Chopstick Charlie. She quickly befriends him and bonds with his daughter, Sidrah, who shows her the ways of Buddhism and takes her to a temple. However, the two are caught in an earthquake and kidnapped by pirates in the wake of the destruction. Jacky antagonizes the pirates to the degree that they toss her overboard. Marooned again, Jacky is soon discovered by the Nancy B. with Liam, Higgins, Davy, Joannie, and others aboard, having not believed that she could be dead without seeing her remains for themselves. Reunited, the crew rescues Sidrah from the pirates, as Jacky correctly assumed that they would seek ransom from Charlie for her. Now in Jacky's debt, Charlie makes a deal with her: he will gift some priceless artifacts to the museum in London in exchange for becoming Faber Shipping's special contact in the East (as well as special trading contact to King George), and Jacky will ideally be pardoned for organizing such a deal for the British. Home again, Jacky learns of Jaimy's stint as the Black Highwayman and attempts to send a message to Jaimy via his new girlfriend, Bess, who refuses. Jacky learns from Dr. Sebastian that Jaimy has killed Alexander Bliffil and plans on getting Flashby next. She then formulates a plan, spending time with Richard Allen in order to secure the Chopstick Charlie deal, simultaneously organizing a charade as an exotic prostitute in order to lure Flashby into a trap. Both plans go well, with Mr. Peel taking Jacky's side in getting her pardoned by the new First Lord, and with Flashby being taken prisoner. Jacky meets King George, who is grateful for the new collection of treasures, but has no idea that she was responsible for them. On the road, Flashby is brought to the Highwayman (Jaimy), but Allen has been ordered to apprehend the Highwayman and cannot disobey, even though he loves Jacky and wants to help her. Therefore, Flashby is framed as the Highwayman and imprisoned in Newgate (after shooting and killing Bess in an attempt to kill Jaimy and escape). Jaimy is brought along with Jacky and her crew, though he does not believe it is really her. Jacky is pardoned by Baron Mulgrave under the condition that she will remain a part of Intelligence and act as translator for Lord Wellesley in Portugal. Viva Jacquelina! Jacky and Higgins travel to Portugal and work under Lord Wellesley; however, Wellesley sends her to Spain with guerrilla leader Pablo Montoya in order to gain intelligence on the French. During the trek, Montoya's group is ambushed by bandits, and scatters, leaving Jacky to travel to Madrid on her own. There, she is taken in by Francisco Goya, the famous artist, and becomes a student/model in Estudio Goya. The male students, especially Cesar Rivera, are infatuated with Jacky and attempt to woo her. On the other hand, the lone female student in the house, Carmelita Gomez, considers Jacky little more than a poor guttersnipe and immediately spurns her. Eventually, Goya takes Jacky with him to aid in his painting of King Joseph's portrait, and paints a controversial nude portrait of Jacky herself. During her time at Estudio Goya, Jacky receives guitar lessons from Django, a gypsy who performs locally. Carmelita tips off the Spanish Inquisition, who arrest Jacky, drag her to a dungeon, and denounce her for appearing nude in a painting. When Jacky refuses to "admit" that Estudio Goya is a house of blasphemy and devil worship, the Inquisitors torture her. Before she can be killed, however, Cesar shows up with Montoya and his men, who kill the Inquisitors and re-recruit Jacky to their original mission. Before Jacky leaves, she waterboards Carmelita in her own bedroom. Jacky aids the guerrillas in sabotaging the French, but when Montoya and his wife, Pilar, decide to burn a young French soldier alive, Jacky grants him a mercy death and leaves the camp, saying she does not possess their resolve. She joins a gypsy troupe who are close with Django, and makes her way to Gibraltar, where she ships onboard a Naval vessel and returns to the sea, hoping to reach Boston and continue Faber Shipping. Boston Jacky Jacky returns to Boston in order to see to the affairs of her shipping company. Much has changed there, including the presence of the Women's Temperance Union led by Mrs. Shinn, and a gang war between rival fire companies led by Arthur McBride, Captain Warren, and Jacky's childhood nemesis Pigger O'Tool. Jacky graduates from Lawson Peabody along with Amy, Clarissa, and the rest of the girls in her age group. She and Clarissa become better friends, and after Jacky purchases the defunct Pig and Whistle Inn and opens the Emerald Playhouse next door, Clarissa forsakes her wealthy Puritan family and becomes an actress and singer. During a parade, Jacky antagonizes the Temperance Union, and Amy storms off, offended at both Jacky's behavior and the fact that Jacky now seems to favor Clarissa over her. Since Faber Shipping's coffers are nearly empty, Jacky realizes it's time to retrieve the last of the gold from the Santa Magdalena wreck. Onboard the Nancy B. Alsop, she and the crewmembers who know about the secret head back to the Florida Keys, along with Clarissa, who joins at the last second. Since Clarissa cannot know about the gold, Jacky leaves her in New Orleans with Mam'selle Claudelle de Bourbon, who introduces Clarissa to cocaine, much to Jacky's rage. Jacky nurses her back to health, and the two begin sharing a bed in Jacky's cabin, often awakening in each other's arms. Mrs. Shinn retaliates at Jacky's public embarrassment of the Temperance Union by having Jacky's adopted children, Ravi and Joan Nichols, seized by the state and taken to asylums for disobedient and wayward youngsters. Jacky eliminates the threat of Pigger by poisoning him with her hallucinogenic mushroom potion (obtained in Spain), after which he is arrested and declared Permanently Insane. She does the same to Judge Thwackham, who gradually loses his mind during the court proceedings, and allows Joan to stay in the care of Miranda Pimm, who testifies on Jacky's behalf. Ravi, on the other hand, must be busted out of the Reformatory by Jacky and Arthur, who lends Jacky his fire wagons. Jacky's performance of In the Belly of the Bloodhound, which includes Clarissa playing herself, becomes an enormous hit. However, Constable Wiggins eventually attacks Jacky and attempts to force her to take the punishment of the ten lashes promised to her in Curse of the Blue Tattoo. Jacky is saved when Randall and his marines show up, and the "punishment" is administered by Jaimy, who is disguised as a hunchback and delivers light blows. Jaimy leaves Boston for England, saying goodbye to Jacky for good. A confused Jacky soon receives a letter from Clarissa, stating that while she loves Jacky, she owed her some payback for stealing Randall from her years ago, and so prevented Jacky and Jaimy from contacting one another throughout the recent months, which resulted in Jaimy assuming Jacky had forsaken him. Wild Rover No More Jacky takes three cruises to the Caribbean on Faber Shipping business in order to clear her head. Eventually, Jaimy returns to Boston, not satisfied with how he left things. The two reconcile after a heated argument and agree to marry once again. However, Chloe soon arrives and warns Jacky that authorities are after her. Jacky discovers that she has been framed for treason as a result of an elaborate scheme by Harry Flashby, who has vowed to see her hang. Jacky goes into hiding. After a short stint as governess to a problem child named Edgar Allen Polk in Plymouth, Jacky is found out by a corrupt postman and must once again run away. She joins a traveling circus, where she befriends the trapeze artist Marcello Grimaldi, who loves her, but she assumes the identity of a Russian princess named Natasha Romanoff, who is promised in marriage to Count Yakov Petrovsky (a facsimile of Vlad the Impaler). Higgins, Mairead, and Enoch Lightner aid in the circus's success, but Jacky is once again found out when American Intelligence agents apprehend Gully MacFarland, who has attended a recent circus performance, and force him to give away Jacky's whereabouts. Jacky is caught and sentenced to hang by Judge Thwackham. Flashby arrives to witness the execution, just as Jaimy obtains papers that would exonerate Jacky. The execution takes place (narrated from Amy's point of view), and Jacky's body is taken down. Gully MacFarland, who arrives to rescue Jacky, is killed by Flashby, who is in turn killed by Randall. However, on the way up to Jacky's burial plot, it is revealed that Higgins, Mistress Pimm, Randall, Clarissa, Richard, and Fennel and Bean worked together to stage a fake execution, which involved a dress with a harness inside, and a Hangman and US Marshall played by actors. Jaimy arrives with the exoneration papers, but still thinks Jacky is dead, and visits her "grave," which in fact houses Gully's body. Jacky and Jaimy reunite and...... if you love me, Jamie, then kiss me, and oh yes, he does. An endnote by L.A. Meyer hints that although Jacky got everything she wanted, her rollicking ways are not at an end. Beliefs Jacky often says prayers and asks God for forgiveness in her mind. However, this is more social convention and an attempt to better herself than a literal belief system similar to that of her Puritan schoolmates. In ''In the Belly of the Bloodhound'', she reveals to the Lawson Peabody girls that many older religions have multiple gods, including female ones, and this ignites a new fire in many of the girls, whose educations and parenting have excluded anything about how their own bodies work or the fact that they are independent people with power over their own destinies. Jacky adds that the Christian god was invented by a bunch of men who wanted to be in control of women. Meyer describes Jacky as "Pantheist," i.e. recognizing the merits of all religions while acknowledging that humans are simply trying to figure out what we're all doing here. Sexuality Jacky is presumably heterosexual, due to her almost exclusive affairs with men. However, she notices the beauty and gentleness of women. Her only romantic encounter with a woman was with her arch-nemesis Clarissa Worthington Howe; a kiss to create a diversion for their mutual captors. Jacky notes later that she has "been kissed by worse." Out of everyone in the series, Jacky most often comments on the attractiveness of Clarissa, often using the word "perfect" to describe her skin and lips. With greater detail spent describing female characteristics and her general open expression of affection for all sexes, it is possible she may be bisexual. In ''Mississippi Jack'','' Jacky briefly lives with Mam'selle Claudelle de Bourbon, who already has feelings for her. While details are sparing, they share a bed for several weeks, and Mam'selle is described as being "good, mostly" while sleeping with Jacky, and later as "not very shy about ''that sort of thing." Jacky kisses Mam'selle on the lips before leaving New Orleans. In [[The Wake of the 'Lorelei Lee'|''The Wake of the 'Lorelei Lee']], Jacky develops an intimate relationship with Cheng Shih, who takes her as a concubine onboard the ''Divine Wind. Although she persists in her intentions to marry Jaimy, Jacky vocally expresses her love for Cheng Shih as well. They part tearfully, with Jacky standing on the quarterdeck until Cheng Shih is out of sight, and she avoids consummating her relationship with Jaimy out of pain and confusion following her separation from Cheng Shih. In ''Boston Jacky'', Jacky forms a relationship with a girl named Griselda while sailing from Spain to Boston, which lasts about a month. Griselda thinks Jacky is male, but Jacky, instead of telling the truth or rejecting Griselda's advances, pursues the romance, considering Griselda to be "pretty" and "amorous." None of Jacky's friends, aside from John Higgins, are made aware of Jacky's affairs with other women. Mothering Jacky has a tendency to act as a mother figure to many of the men and boys she meets, despite her youth. This is often chalked up to the time period, during which the simple touch of female hands was enough to satiate almost any male. However, in ''In the Belly of the Bloodhound'' it is revealed that the orphan Jacky was once guardian to an abandoned baby boy named Jesse, whom she was forced to give up so that he would not die during the winter in London. Over the course of the series proper, Jacky comes into contact with many young people that she takes under her wing in a motherly way, including Georgie Piggott in ''Under the Jolly Roger'', ''Denis Dofour in [[My Bonny Light Horseman|''My Bonny Light Horseman]], ''Joan Nichols in [[Rapture of the Deep|''Rapture of the Deep]], ''and Ravi in [[The Wake of the 'Lorelei Lee'|''The Wake of the 'Lorelei Lee']]. ''Ravi eventually calls her "Mommy." PTSD After her near-hanging by the pirate LaFievre, Jacky begins experiencing nightmares that cause her to wake up screaming. The nightmares increase every time she sees one of her friends killed or is nearly killed herself, and she "collects" these horrific experiences as the series goes on. The only thing that occasionally allows her a peaceful night is to sleep in the arms of one of her friends. Jacky also experiences flashes of depression, which she refers to as the Black Cloud. Frequently spoken phrases "I am so very hard on my friends." "I wasn't raised up proper." "Men, I swear..." "I am a peaceable sort of coward." "I don't know nothin' about nothin'." "Sin of Pride, I know." "Might as well be hanged for a wolf as for a sheep." “I do try to be good.” Relationships *'Jaimy Fletcher:' her on-again/off-again fiance throughout most of the series. *'Mistress Miranda Pimm:' the headmistress of the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls . Although she seemed to hate Jacky in the beginning, she soon grew fond of her wayward student, especially after Jacky rescued her from the fire. *'Amy Trevelyne:' Jacky's best friend. They met each other at the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in the second book, "Curse of the Blue Tattoo". They got along quite well, and Amy wrote down all that Jacky told her about her time on the Dolphin, which Amy then turned into a book. She later turns several of Jacky's adventures, including her time at the Lawson Peabody, into more books, much to the embarrassment of Jacky. *'Clarissa Worthington Howe:' her mortal enemy in school. The two girls positively hated each other in "Curse of the Blue Tattoo", mostly because Jacky became more popular than Clarissa due to her adventures. Then, Clarissa's fiance, Randall Trevelyne, broke off the engagement because he was in love with Jacky. *'Rebecca Adams: another of Jacky's friends from the Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls . She is only twelve years old in "Curse of the Blue Tattoo" and is the youngest girl enrolled at the school. When Jacky is demoted to serving girl, Rebecca tutors her in embroidery, while Jacky tutors Rebecca in reading, writing, and arithmetic. She is implied to be John Adams' granddaughter. *Randall Trevelyne:' is Amy Trevelyne's older brother. He had a crush on Jacky, and broke off his engagement with Clarissa Worthington Howe because of it. He is jealous of Jacky because she has been on so many adventures while being only a young girl, whereas he, a grown man, has had none. In "My Bonny Light Horseman", it is revealed that Randall ran away from home to join the French army to go on an adventure on his own. In "The Wake of the Lorelei Lee", he falls in love with one of Jacky's old gang-mates, Polly Von. *'Robin Raeburne:' Robin and Jacky met while on the 'Wolverine'. The two were midshipmen together. They almost slept together when Jacky believed she was going to be raped by the captain. *'Jean-Paul de Valdon:' Jacky's friend, starting in "My Bonny Light Horseman". They were both spies in the British Naval Intelligence, and he is a rich, French aristocrat. *'Flaco Jiminez:' a pirate that Jacky met while sailing the Caribbean. He is another one of Jacky's many former flames. Jacky helped Flaco regain his ship after his second-in-command mutinied against him. *'Lord Richard Allen:' a young British captain that Jacky meets in "Mississippi Jack". He won a kiss lasting 'til the count of thirty from Jacky during a game, and claimed kiss while en route to New Orleans, while Jacky and he were skinny dipping in the Mississippi. This little incident occurred just as Jaimy was catching up to the Belle of the Golden West in his canoe, and caused Jaimy to leave Jacky, thinking that she had not been faithful to him. Richard and Jacky remain close throughout the series, and he proposes marriage a number of times. *'Cheng Shih: '''a female Chinese pirate who kidnaps Jacky in "The Wake of the 'Lorelei Lee'". It is strongly suggested that she was deeply in love with Jacky, and tried to keep her as a "pet". However, once she realized how happy Jaimy made Jacky, she allowed them to leave together. Category:Bloody Jack Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Major Characters Category:Royal Navy Category:Fabers Shipping